


smoke and whiskey

by erythea



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gore, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Minor Character Death, Vore, anyway there's no happiness here, idk it's shuten, kintoki is a cop, okay... there is flirting, sad oni life, shuten is a bartender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:47:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25512313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erythea/pseuds/erythea
Summary: Modern AU... of sorts. Shuten asks Kintoki for help, but it's not the help he expects her to ask for.His voice was like smoke and whiskey, but he was too good for this town. Where they were, no one would trust a badge. All they cared about was how you could line their pockets.“What’s wrong? Someone hurt you?”He was different.“You don’t like your girls wild, do you, boy?”“What?”“He liked me a little too much.” Shuten’s throat tightened. She tugged the rouge on her lips into a bold, beautiful line. “Boy, I think you ought to take notes.”
Relationships: Ibaraki-douji | Berserker & Shuten-douji | Assassin, Sakata Kintoki | Berserker/Shuten-douji | Assassin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 36





	smoke and whiskey

**Author's Note:**

> i love shuten/kintoki. i care them.
> 
> cw: implied/referenced physical and sexual assault, graphic depictions of gore and vore

There was nothing to do in Kabukicho now.

The evening rain hit the pavement outside Shuten Douji’s bar like a shower of bullets. Barkers and escorts were no longer traversing the streets. That’s how she knew Ibaraki was sleeping like a baby. They lived on the second floor of this hole-in-the-wall joint, the building owned by a relative who died a little after the bubble burst. Shuten thought they were one of the lucky ones.

Shuten stood under the awning, shivering by the entrance and hoping the neon sign would serve its purpose. She hadn’t touched any liquor, but another heady scent lingered in her mind and kept her from sobriety. She knew, because she could feel it in the barrage of rain at her feet, each drop hammering at the back of her mind.

Reminding her.

Punishing her.

Even the silence before the lightning couldn’t give her reprieve. She knew what she had done. Never wait for a man: that was what she used to say. But after everyone had dragged their sins and cigarettes across her skin, a part of Shuten still hoped.

Then her hope was answered. The sound of his motorcycle lifted her shoulders. Thunder roared as if to usher him in. She was the one who called for him but when he entered the awning, her eyes were as wide and glassy as the puddles on the street as they gazed upon her blond, blue-eyed dream. He caught her by the elbows and she went weak in the knees.

Sakata Kintoki — even his name was the stuff of fairy tales. Legends and liquor were both sweet to the senses, but alcohol kept Shuten awake until the foolishness caught up to her. Now fantasies, they never hurt anyone. You read them to children so they can sleep at night. She’s always wanted to have sweet dreams. Naturally, she couldn’t help herself.

“Shuten, I gotcha. Everything’s okay now.”

His voice was like smoke and whiskey, but he was too good for this town. Where they were, no one would trust a badge. All they cared about was how you could line their pockets.

“What’s wrong? Someone hurt you?”

He was different.

“You don’t like your girls wild, do you, boy?”

“What?”

“He liked me a little too much.” Shuten’s throat tightened. She tugged the rouge on her lips into a bold, beautiful line. “Boy, I think you ought to take notes.”

“The hell are you doing outside? You’ll catch a cold. You gonna let me in?”

“You won't like it there.”

“But you want me there.”

“I wish I had someone else to call.”

“Do you want help or not?” Kintoki snapped. That wasn’t like him. “Sorry, I just… I’d go crazy if something happened to you.” Better. She could see his gaze soften even as his brows furrowed. “I’m here ‘cause I wanna help you. You know that, right?”

Ever the knight in shining armor. Shuten liked that about him. She dipped her head, and though the fear was palpable in the trembling of her voice, there remained that same unwavering smile.

“I'm scared,” Shuten whispered. “I think I’ve gone crazy. You'd go crazy, too, if that happened to you. Isn't that what you do?”

Maybe not. Kintoki often stumbled into trouble with the top brass, but his hands were still clean. Mostly.

He gave her arms a squeeze.

“Show me.”

Judging from the sharp look in his eyes, he’d already caught a whiff of something metallic in the air.

Before the counter lay the corpse of a man in his mid-thirties. His watch, gold. His suit, gray. The color of his tie, he can’t tell. It was tucked inside a bleeding cavity in his chest.

Kintoki gagged. She expected no less.

“He came here all the time, that boy. He’d stay until I had to close up...”

Shuten hugged herself and looked away in discomfort, which served her just as well — he could still see Kintoki’s form on the reflections of her liquor bottles.

“He wasn’t bad on the eyes. I told him he could have a taste. He wanted a little more.” Shuten sighed, growing reluctant with each detail. “He started getting rough, so I… Well, it happened so fast. It was only after he fell that I realized his blood was on my hands.”

Kintoki was at a loss for words. He’d seen his share of gruesome cases, but none of them involved a fist-sized hole in a man’s chest. “Shuten, this ain’t gonna work...”

“Don’t worry,” she said as she threaded her own fingers behind her back, wrinkled from scrubbing with traces in the nails. “I made sure he died quickly.”

“That ain’t the problem here!” Kintoki scolded. The bottles on the shelves seemed to rattle in her stead. “You think they’ll letcha get away with murder?”

“I know they’ll let him get away with assault.”

Kintoki gritted his teeth. “...You should’ve called me. Say you were seeing someone—”

“Oh?” She placed two fingers on her lips. Her smile was like the moon. “Is that someone you?”

“You know what I mean!” It sounded like he was choking on a sob. She didn’t know. She didn’t think it was a thing he could do. Not for her. “If he deserved it, that’s one thing. But if I can’t protect you from what comes after—”

“It’s all right,” she said with her usual airy drawl. “You don’t have to cover for me this time.”

Shuten closed her eyes. She didn’t know if he would keep along this path or quit halfway, but he had a bright life ahead of him.

She couldn’t ruin that, so she’ll be all right.

Really.

“That cow was right. I've always been a pest.”

“That’s not true—”

“Then what should I do, boy?” Her delicate hand began to run down his broad chest. “Turn myself in? Kiss your mouth shut?”

Kintoki seized her wrist. “That won’t work on me.”

Shuten laughed. Smoke and whiskey — gets her every time.

“Say it was self-defense. I’ll vouch for you. I know the odds are stacked against us, but we can still win this—”

“Oh, you...” She sighed fondly. “...will believe anything I say, won’t you?”

Between her lips, a flash of fangs.

In his eyes, a flash of emotion.

“Since I’ll be gone soon, why don’t you hold me?”

  
  


The next morning, Shuten woke up slumped across the bar counter. She checked her call history — no Kintoki. Of course. The real one wouldn’t believe her. Humans can’t claw their way into flesh and bone, he would never think she was capable of such a sin, and most of all, he would never protect her. 

But the oni laughed. Even in her dreams, she found the boy adorable.

Her head throbbed as she struggled to prop herself up the counter. The door was still locked the way she left it, and... Oh, right. She forgot to turn off the electric letters outside again. She huffed a sigh and slid off her seat— 

Stepping right into a pool of blood.

“Shuten...”

There sat Ibaraki Douji, school uniform stained scarlet red. She was huddled over the body from last night, her guilt present in the quiver of her lip.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. 

“I know you said I should—I should wait until you ch-chopped bad men up, but I was so hungry…”

Her mouth was full of human meat. Her chin was dribbling with blood.

She’d dismembered the man’s arm and stripped it to the bone the way she knew how.

The way  _ they  _ knew how.

Shuten crouched next to Ibaraki, and suddenly she felt small.

“I don’t like it here.”

“I know.”

“I get hungry but we can’t eat.”

“I know.”

“People hurt us,” Ibaraki’s voice cracked. “and we can’t hurt them back.”

Shuten’s lips parted, but what could she say? They had no food in the mountains. They couldn’t throw their lives away. They had already eaten the owner of this building. None of these brought comfort; only questions not even she, in all the centuries she’d seen, knew the answers to.

Instead, she answered her phone, which had just begun to ring.

Only one man would call at this hour.

“Shuten, are you alright? I heard another guy went missing in your area… I’m not worried or anything, but call me if something happens, okay?!”

“You’re not worried? How mean! You don’t have to hold back, you know…”

How adorable.

On most nights, Shuten dreams about Kintoki killing her. Sometimes, with an axe. Sometimes, with his bare hands. It didn’t matter. It could happen at any moment. All he needed to do was look at the facts. He wasn’t the brightest, but he could figure it out. She's already laid it out for him. She was well aware that things would come to an end. But not yet. Not when she can still think of him fondly.

Because Shuten had a dream last night, and she didn’t know if she wanted it to end. She was familiar with pleasure and delight, but was happiness supposed to be fleeting and bittersweet? As the Kintoki in her dreams held her tight, all she could think about was how tender his flesh was. How the fat would spill out of his skin. How the muscle would catch between her teeth.

“Just hearing your handsome voice… makes me want to eat you up.”

She hated it.


End file.
